Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Mapstraction is a JavaScript toolkit that provides an common API to eleven different mapping providers. This allows a developer to create an application that can be easily switched between different base map providers. This could be at development time (eg. if a provider introduces better data) or at runtime (eg. according to region or the whim of the end user).

Mapstraction introduces a layer of abstraction between the developer and the various map provider APIs. This allows the developer to write the application only once (for the abstration layer) and support all of the APIs simultaneously. It also allows the map provider to be chosen at runtime - eg. by region according to data coverage, or the end user's personal choice.

The Mapstraction project is under continuous development, with progress recorded in a roadmap and a feature matrix. Despite the appearance of being partially developed, Mapstraction already supports eleven "providers":

FreeEarth

Google

Map24

MapQuest

Microsoft Bing Maps (nee Virtual Earth)

MultiMap - both the commercial and OpenAPI interfaces

OpenLayers

OpenSpace (British Ordnance Survey)

OpenStreetMap

ViaMichelin

Yahoo

Note that not all of these are data providers as such. For example, OpenLayers is a popular JavaScript toolkit. Similarly, OpenStreetMap is a data source and not a JavaScript API.

Mapstraction has an interactive API "sandbox". This is similar to the increasingly popular "interactive SDKs" that are often included in online documentation, but it also allows the reader to edit the code. The interactive API "sandbox" can be found athttp://mapstraction.appspot.com/ .

So how easy is it switch between different map providers 'on the fly'? Very easy as it turns out. The following example (from the interactive API sandbox) implements a set of radio buttons allowing the user to change map providers: [...]

Several enterprise mashup proponents, including ProgrammableWeb, have come together to form the new Open Mashup Alliance (OMA). The OMA has been founded with the goal of supporting the implementation of enterprise mashups along with an open language that promotes enterprise mashup interoperability and portability.

This is very promising development in the enterprise mashup space, a market we have regularly covered here on ProgrammableWeb. As you can see in the list of founding companies, many of them are companies that we have identified as leading the charge in the implementation of enterprise mashups.

In order to put some substance behind the goals of the OMA, one of the major proponents of enterprise mashups, JackBe, have contributed its Enterprise Mashup Markup Language (EMML) and runtime engine to the OMA as an open source resource (licensed under Creative Commons). The idea behind EMML is that it will break down the barriers for implementation of enterprise mashups by providing a common language for development of the mashups and a corresponding engine that processes mashup scripts written in EMML. You can see a snippet below: [...]

En uundværlig pakkeliste over værktøjer som skal med på din næste Robinsonade .../SikGreat list of tools to bring to any LOST island in the pacific .../Sik

Quote

What would you do if you were suddenly stranded on a desert island in the middle of nowhere, with only a USB drive, a dial-up internet connection, and a barebones computer with no software outside the operating system installed? Of course, you’d use the internet connection to call for help first, but what about after that? How would you keep your design business going?

Okay, maybe a scenario that’s a bit more likely would work better. What if your computer crashed, wiping out all of your data and programs, and you have a deadline in two days? Or maybe you want to be able to pick up and leave at a moment’s notice without taking anything more than a change of clothes and a USB drive. If you have the apps below, neither of those scenarios would be much of a problem.

The apps on this list can help you with everything from coding to graphics to running your business and managing your projects, all from a single USB drive. And while USB drives are getting bigger all the time (last I checked a 64GB one wasn’t too badly priced, and that’s 4GB more storage than my current MacBook has), you still need special programs in most instances to have true portability. The apps below are just that: truly portable and small enough to fit on a USB drive (often a very small USB drive). [...]

QuoteNew York City has had a pioneering web mapping portal since 2001 with the launch of the Open Accessible Space Information System (OASIS). The system got its start with funding from the Forest Service and a partnership of more than 40 organizations with the purpose of providing open space stewardship. The application has steadily evolved and continues to be at the technological forefront of web mapping. The New York City region is also blessed with one of the more detailed regional planning tools around with the Long Island Index interactive map. Both of these sites are the product of the CUNY Mapping Service and their partners. V1 editor Matt Ball spoke with Steven Romalewski, director of the CUNY Mapping Service at the CUNY Graduate Center, about the current state of web mapping, and the latest capabilities of web mapping tools. [...]Read more: http://www.vector1media.com/dialogue/interviews/9203-expanding-the-reach-of-gis-through-web-mapping

Neuroscience students take it for granted that there are many more glia than neurons in the brain. Neuroscience textbooks state with confidence: “Although there are many neurons in the human brain…, glia outnumber neurons by tenfold” (Bear et al. 2006) or, not to be outdone, even by “10–50 times”, as claimed in another text (Kandel et al. 2000). This fact is happily invoked by gliologists to promote the status of their field.

Damn those status-conscious gliologists! They've been leading us astray!

Given this well-accepted figure, we were surprised when our cell counts in the prefrontal cortex of the rhesus monkey turned up a glia-to-neuron ratio (GNR) of just about 1 (Dombrowski et al. 2001). There was some regional variation, but no prefrontal area had a GNR larger than 1.2. Maybe the proportion of glia is very different in other cortical regions or other parts of the brain, so that the overall ratio for the whole brain is much larger than 1? Classic studies, however, conducted by O’Kusky and Colonnier (1982) in the opposite pole of the brain, the visual cortex, had reported an even lower GNR of 0.5.

The origin of the glial dominance myth is not clear at all. Hilgetag and Barbas conclude by mentioning that...

Since the number of synapses increases faster than the number of neurons in larger brains, this affiliation of glia with the multitude of neural connection points may help explain... For example, in large brains such as the human brain... there may be as many as 1.4 astrocytes for each neuron, up from 0.33 in the rodent cortex (Nedergaard et al. 2003). Even that ratio, however, is still a long way from the myth of 10 times more glia than neurons, in any species.

Google has had a busy week. Not only did they release Google Earth version 5.1 and then release new imagery for many parts of the world, but today they added two more cities in 3D:Copenhagen, Denmark and Marseilles, France.

The addition of Copenhagen is very timely, as Google just recently released some tools in preparation for the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen. Oddly, though, the building that will house the conference (the Bella Center) was a bit too far away from downtown to get modeled.

To view these or any other 3D buildings, make sure you turn on the 3D Buildings layer inside of Google Earth. [...]